No Greater Love
by Saturnine Spiders
Summary: What happens if Rita Skeeter learns of Severus Snape's love for Lily Potter? She tells all her loyal readers, of course!


**Title:** No Greater Love

 **Word Count:** 1038

 **Beta(s):** Verity Grahams, SassenachStarbuck, and whitetiger91

 **A/N:** This my spin on what would happen if Rita Skeeter found out about Severus Snape's love for Lily Potter. She'd tell all her loyal readers, of course!

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 **SEVERUS SNAPE: NO GREATER LOVE**

 _By the Daily Prophet's Gossip Correspondent, Rita Skeeter_

 _You-Know-Who's reign of terror has been subdued, but the effects that the Dark Lord has put us under still ring through our heads and our hearts, and no one knows that more than famed Potions Professor and Ex-Death Eater, Severus Snape. In this exclusive issue, I uncover the remarkable strain our favourite Potions Master has been forced to endure (no doubt some was due because of the late Albus Dumbledore). But, be warned, my readers, for the tortures and heartaches he so bravely persisted through will leave you reaching for your handkerchief!_

 _Severus Snape, raised in the Muggle dwelling of Spinner's End, was the only son of the Muggle Tobias Snape and lovely Eileen Snape nee Prince. Sources report his father was a neglectful man, believing his own son and wife to be "freaks", and often was suspected to have been rather violent. Our Potions Professor was uncared for and unloved, leaving him to wallow in his bitter resentment until a small ray of light brightened his dreary life._

 _Deceased Lily Potter nee Evans was the pretty, green-eyed neighbour he had found himself falling in love with. You heard me right; the cynical Potions Master had once been in love, and she is the only one he'll ever love, sadly. She was kind, warming his bitter heart, and she was beautiful, her image seared into his mind. Lily Evans was the embodiment of perfection, an angel in his puddle of shame, and he loved her with all he had. The two were inseparable despite the world calling for them to be apart._

 _Miss Evans was placed in the house of the brave, and Mr Snape was placed in the house of the cunning. They were of two sides of the same coin, but Severus Snape didn't believe in such foolery; he believed his love could persevere through the many trials. Yes, ladies, you are free to swoon! But, as the years passed, a young boy with a wicked grin was determined to sweep Lily Evans off her feet. His name was James Potter: Severus Snape's tormentor and bully. It was a truly tragic love story, but Severus Snape wasn't one to give up!_

 _You all know the late James Potter to be a good man, but what if there was a darker side to him? James Potter was obsessed with Miss Evans; sources report that he wanted her for himself. With the help of Sirius Black, a boy whose family's blood purist ways led to some of this age's darkest times, he managed to cruelly manipulate Severus Snape. It sounds crazy, I know, but what I was told next made my heart stop._

 _Remus Lupin, a known werewolf and one of the four 'Marauders', was said to have been the cause of the shrieks many believed to have heard coming from the Shrieking Shack. Severus Snape was ever the curious young man, and with the false hope of finally catching his enemy out before curfew, he was hoodwinked into venturing inside the dangerous tree where the wolf laid in wait. James Potter had plotted this, my readers, in hopes of charming Miss Evans by saving her best friend. With that, Severus Snape was forced into owing James Potter a life debt for his "heroic" actions._

 _Severus Snape was ridiculed for being a Slytherin by the Marauders, a group James Potter formed that took pleasure in pulling harmful pranks. One day, the Marauders decided to use a jinx— one our Potions Master had made during his years at Hogwarts (what a brilliant young man he was!)— against him. The jinx, Levicorpus, would cause the victim to be hoisted into the air by their ankle. There had been a few months in the year of 1976 where the jinx was popular among the students of Hogwarts, as the students would be unable to move while high in the air._

 _A crowd had formed when James Potter had cast the jinx on Severus, and by the time Miss Evans had come to his rescue, he had succumbed to the embarrassment of the situation. He wasn't thinking, and in his anger, he said the one word that no Muggleborn wished to hear. A name so foul I can't even write it, my dear readers._

 _Miss Evans believed that word to be unforgivable, and in her misery, she turned to the one man Severus Snape hated most: James Potter. Severus Snape was left in James Potter's shadow, and in his bitter heart, he thought the only way out was to become part of the Dark Lord's reign across Europe. He hoped it would impress Miss Evans, but it only enforced her suspicions. She saw him as someone too deep in the dark arts, and he saw her as his last hope out._

 _The day James Potter proposed to Lily Evans, Severus Snape knew his life was over. He was a puppet to be used, and the Dark Lord held his strings with a nasty grin. He found himself too deep within the rabbit hole (a Muggle reference); he was trapped, and Severus Snape was to figure out just how deep. During the dark year of 1981, Severus Snape had begged the Dark Lord to spare Lily Potter and her child, but as the night of Hallowe'en came, Mrs Potter was killed along with her husband, James Potter._

 _All that was left was their son, Harry James Potter, known to us as the Boy-Who-Lived. A child whose eyes shone the same emerald green as the late Lily Potter nee Evans, but everything else screamed James Potter. Severus Snape was said to hate Harry Potter, but, my dear readers, Severus Snape never did hate the young saviour._

 _As the only thing that surpassed his love for Miss Evans was his dedication to keeping the Potter boy safe._

 _…_

 _...tun to pg. 13 to read up on Albus Dumbledore's biggest mistakes_

 _...turn to pg. 25 to read up on the jinx Levicorpus_

 _...turn to pg. 31 to read up on Muggle References all Witches and Wizards should know_

 _...turn to pg. 44 to read up on All Times Severus Snape saved Harry Potter_

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 **Prompt(s):**

\- #42 for Angel N Darkness's Are You Crazy Enough to Do It Challenge

\- Use a title of a story written by your Captain for inspiration for TQLFC _(Love Acknowledged_ by BlueRubyBeat)


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